Blog 4.
1. How have your reading experiences and skills influenced your development as an L1 (and L2) writer? Why might reading skill be an especially important factor in how multilingual students become proficient writers?
1. How have your reading experiences and skills influenced your development as an L1 (and L2) writer? Why might reading skill be an especially important factor in how multilingual students become proficient writers?
I have always been aware that reading improves my ability to write in my L1. Reading introduces me to new ideas and new vocabulary with which those ideas are expressed. As I pursue my Masters in TESOL, I realize that this new field of knowledge requires new ways of expressing oneself. I will pursue reading within this professional field to increase my rate of absorbing new information and my comprehension. Reading widely within this specialty also builds familiarity with the acceptable style of writing in this field.
In the past, found that when I read for pleasure, I read for longer periods of time, and I am working on converting the need to read into a desire to read.
2. What genres do you encounter as an academic and nonacademic reader? What features typify these genres? What have you learned from them?
Let me clarify my interpretation of genre, as the “recurring or characteristic textual (oral or written) responses to the requirements of the social context” (p. 111).
As an L1 reader and writer, as an adult, my non-academic and academic reading covered many genres, primarily business management, project management and healthcare management. In my earlier years, my focused genres were classical English literature, geography, plant and soil sciences. My reading was and is interactive with the text, summarizing what is read, and developing different opinions to the ones expressed in the text I read. I have read professional texts to achieve various degrees and certifications, or to develop professional presentations for clients. Academically, I read to complete a Master’s degree in Education, and now I am reading in pursuit of a second Master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Specific genres in business are: user manuals, tutorials, project management, healthcare presentations, literature reviews, proposals, business conversation, interviewing and negotiation guidance, just to name a few.
What typifies these genres is that written English requires that the writer supply the complete context, which makes sentences more complex. In spoken English, sentences are shorter because the context is understood by the speech participants. I have learned to re-read and repair written English before final production, so that information written is clear to the asynchronous reader. It is also important that written English be understood to be a dance between the reader and writer, hence the importance of socially correct and nuanced language for the intended discourse community. Each discourse community has its cultural norms and patterned dance steps, which needs to be learned through participation in communities of practice in order to efficiently communicate.
3. If you have teaching experience, what features do you seek in instructional materials (e.g., print and digital texts, software, and so on)? What distinguishes a good textbook or software application from a poor one?
I look for instructional material which is authentic to the integrated conversation task I teach. Currently, I teach business English conversation, which is a minefield filled with opportunities for participants to self-destruct. What works for my students from all over the world, is a selection of instructional material from written texts to online resources, combined with in-class situational practice which simulates their real-life encounters and conversational dances on their jobs. This requires that each lesson defines the situation the students are likely to encounter, engages the student in real-life re-enactments, supported by specially selected online or printed texts, based on the median of the class' ability to comprehend its rhetorical arrangement, complexity and vocabulary, as suggested by Ferris and Hegcock (2014, page 121).
It takes the collective experience of the writers of the text, as well as the exhaustive experience of the instructor to develop instruction of immediate benefit in each student's western business workplace, while maintaining the appropriate balance of social and cultural correctness. Adult students working in the west often find themselves working in businesses with unwritten codes of conduct, implicit social and cultural expectations which are different than the ones which prevail in the student's home country. Unless mastered, lack of knowledge can lead to self-isolation, resentment and poor job performance.
4. In what respects might criteria for an L2 literacy or composition textbook differ from those that we might apply to other types of textbook? Why?
The criteria for L2 literacy or composition textbook differ from those of other types of textbooks in that the textbook needs to provide the student with authentic and wide range of scaffolding exposure to socioculturally appropriate texts and composition tasks. The tasks need to "real world", goal oriented, and designed to build genre and cultural awareness. These criteria suggest tasks which engage the cognitive abilities to search for, discover, synthesize and summarize genre specific information (Ferris and Hegcock (2014, page 127).
5. Under what conditions should a composition teacher augment a textbook with supplemental materials, tasks, and assignments? Justify your response.
A text book can supply the teachers with time-saving tools of quizzes, tests, assignments and projects as approved by the learning institution. However, each class of students will have special and specific needs not addressed by the textbook, which may be written years before it is used in a classroom. Depending on the unique needs of the students supplemental material may be required to emphasize a particular cultural point, or to provide rehearsal of real-world situations as explained by the students in their problem solving needs.
As Ferris and Hegcock (2014, page 123) points out, the sequence of activities in the text book may not suit the current student audience's needs, or the students may require more in-depth, examples and practice with culturally specific scenarios of composition. The textbook may be simply inadequate in its breadth of coverage in one specific topic area or another. I have found it necessary to augment my instruction with digital media which clarifies themes and topics to increase the authenticity and applicability of ideas presented in text books to the evolving student situations, over the years.
6. What types of in-class and out-of-class activities and exercises are most productive for inexperienced writers? For experienced writers? Why?
In-class activities to help students write include having them speak while the teacher writes. They can tell a story or articulate a situation with which they are familiar.
The teacher can help the student understand that writing is a process, a sequence of steps which requires first identifying an idea, then focusing on a thesis or position related to that idea. It involves identifying opinions which may be in conflict with one's personal position, or in agreement, providing the rationale for why the idea is important or why the debate is essential. The student can be guided to find evidence to support both the personal position held or the positions stated that are in disagreement with the central thesis. Out-of-class activities may include further research on the topic, real life examples of the thesis and peer review before final presentation.
If the student understands that writing is an iterative process, yielding drafts before the final copy, they may be less reluctant to get started.
Reference
2. What genres do you encounter as an academic and nonacademic reader? What features typify these genres? What have you learned from them?
Let me clarify my interpretation of genre, as the “recurring or characteristic textual (oral or written) responses to the requirements of the social context” (p. 111).
As an L1 reader and writer, as an adult, my non-academic and academic reading covered many genres, primarily business management, project management and healthcare management. In my earlier years, my focused genres were classical English literature, geography, plant and soil sciences. My reading was and is interactive with the text, summarizing what is read, and developing different opinions to the ones expressed in the text I read. I have read professional texts to achieve various degrees and certifications, or to develop professional presentations for clients. Academically, I read to complete a Master’s degree in Education, and now I am reading in pursuit of a second Master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages. Specific genres in business are: user manuals, tutorials, project management, healthcare presentations, literature reviews, proposals, business conversation, interviewing and negotiation guidance, just to name a few.
What typifies these genres is that written English requires that the writer supply the complete context, which makes sentences more complex. In spoken English, sentences are shorter because the context is understood by the speech participants. I have learned to re-read and repair written English before final production, so that information written is clear to the asynchronous reader. It is also important that written English be understood to be a dance between the reader and writer, hence the importance of socially correct and nuanced language for the intended discourse community. Each discourse community has its cultural norms and patterned dance steps, which needs to be learned through participation in communities of practice in order to efficiently communicate.
I look for instructional material which is authentic to the integrated conversation task I teach. Currently, I teach business English conversation, which is a minefield filled with opportunities for participants to self-destruct. What works for my students from all over the world, is a selection of instructional material from written texts to online resources, combined with in-class situational practice which simulates their real-life encounters and conversational dances on their jobs. This requires that each lesson defines the situation the students are likely to encounter, engages the student in real-life re-enactments, supported by specially selected online or printed texts, based on the median of the class' ability to comprehend its rhetorical arrangement, complexity and vocabulary, as suggested by Ferris and Hegcock (2014, page 121).
It takes the collective experience of the writers of the text, as well as the exhaustive experience of the instructor to develop instruction of immediate benefit in each student's western business workplace, while maintaining the appropriate balance of social and cultural correctness. Adult students working in the west often find themselves working in businesses with unwritten codes of conduct, implicit social and cultural expectations which are different than the ones which prevail in the student's home country. Unless mastered, lack of knowledge can lead to self-isolation, resentment and poor job performance.
4. In what respects might criteria for an L2 literacy or composition textbook differ from those that we might apply to other types of textbook? Why?
The criteria for L2 literacy or composition textbook differ from those of other types of textbooks in that the textbook needs to provide the student with authentic and wide range of scaffolding exposure to socioculturally appropriate texts and composition tasks. The tasks need to "real world", goal oriented, and designed to build genre and cultural awareness. These criteria suggest tasks which engage the cognitive abilities to search for, discover, synthesize and summarize genre specific information (Ferris and Hegcock (2014, page 127).
5. Under what conditions should a composition teacher augment a textbook with supplemental materials, tasks, and assignments? Justify your response.
A text book can supply the teachers with time-saving tools of quizzes, tests, assignments and projects as approved by the learning institution. However, each class of students will have special and specific needs not addressed by the textbook, which may be written years before it is used in a classroom. Depending on the unique needs of the students supplemental material may be required to emphasize a particular cultural point, or to provide rehearsal of real-world situations as explained by the students in their problem solving needs.
As Ferris and Hegcock (2014, page 123) points out, the sequence of activities in the text book may not suit the current student audience's needs, or the students may require more in-depth, examples and practice with culturally specific scenarios of composition. The textbook may be simply inadequate in its breadth of coverage in one specific topic area or another. I have found it necessary to augment my instruction with digital media which clarifies themes and topics to increase the authenticity and applicability of ideas presented in text books to the evolving student situations, over the years.
6. What types of in-class and out-of-class activities and exercises are most productive for inexperienced writers? For experienced writers? Why?
In-class activities to help students write include having them speak while the teacher writes. They can tell a story or articulate a situation with which they are familiar.
The teacher can help the student understand that writing is a process, a sequence of steps which requires first identifying an idea, then focusing on a thesis or position related to that idea. It involves identifying opinions which may be in conflict with one's personal position, or in agreement, providing the rationale for why the idea is important or why the debate is essential. The student can be guided to find evidence to support both the personal position held or the positions stated that are in disagreement with the central thesis. Out-of-class activities may include further research on the topic, real life examples of the thesis and peer review before final presentation.
If the student understands that writing is an iterative process, yielding drafts before the final copy, they may be less reluctant to get started.
Reference
Ferris, Dana R., Hedgcock, John. (2014) Teaching L2 Composition: Purpose, Process, and Practice. Taylor and Francis. Kindle Edition.
You mentioned above an activity in which students speak while the teacher writes. Is this an activity that you currently do in your class? Can you clarify exactly what you do- are you a "scribe" and if so do you write down exactly what is said, or do you correct as you write? Or maybe it is something different all together?
ReplyDeleteFor my inexperienced writers, I like to use graphic organizers. I use a series of steps which ultimately lead up to the student completing the organizer on their own with their own ideas. I begin with presenting a model (paragraph) with an accompanying organizer completed. Students discuss the organizer in groups making connections between text to organizer. Then I give a similar model with a blank organizer, and students complete in groups. The final task is for students to be given a similar topic (to the 2 previous models), and they complete the organizer on their own using the content from the 2 completed organizers as a guide. Does that make sense?
Diane
Marie - What a fantastic sentence you write: "I have learned to re-read and repair written English before final production, so that information written is clear to the asynchronous reader." You put it so well! Writers must take care that written information is clear. That seems obvious for academic text, but also for informal text, such as email. How many times have emails been interpreted differently than the writer intended? Until this class, I had never pondered much on the idea that a writer must include all of the context for the reader-writer 'conversation'. This is something important to point out to our students - a reader cannot ask the writer to clarify something, all of the meaning must be clear from the writing. It also emphasizes the importance of the audience and the readers' schema. I am going to have to copy/paste that sentence into my blog somewhere so I can remember it.
ReplyDeleteHi Marie,
ReplyDeleteI am also teaching Occupational Writing and it is indeed a minefield for students to wreak havoc on themselves. Most of my students have just come from high school and have not qualified for developmental English courses. The requirements for writing are very minimal in the jobs that they qualify for, so I have them work on reading and writing a synopsis of local employment laws, fire/gunman safety rules, or discounts arranged by the client. Filter through these exercises are the rules for dependent & independent clauses, commas, and other rules of grammar. I find the organization charts to set up compare/contrast memos, cause effect memos, and process memos to be exceptionally helpful for the students to focus their thinking and writing.
Carol
Marie,
ReplyDeleteI love what you say about the desire to read. I too feel like I need to focus on that next. You mention looking for authentic integrated tasks in your textbooks; I hadn't thought about that, but this is certainly a good one!
When you mention how netbooks can come equipped with a set of resources that can helpful, you are right on point, those are handy, but we may still need to adapt.
You make valid points! :)
Best,
Taina
You put it well in your own words that writing is "a dance between the reader and writer." When we write, we should be aware of the audience and the expectations they have about the text their reading. The Discourse and literate communities we are writing to are important to consider when writing.
ReplyDelete